There is a long history of the desirability of and necessity for dried fruit products. Many of these products are simply dried under naturally occurring sunny conditions, such as raisins and other fruits are dried under controlled industrial conditions to protect the color, flavor and texture of the products. The known commercial processes leave much to be desired in terms of handling, processing and the ability of the products so dried to remain desirably soft and natural looking over extended periods of time with minimal changes in color and flavor. Several techniques are known to obtain dried fruits having highly desirable softness properties. One such technique is the infusion of dried fruits with sugar.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,350,711 entitled "Methods of Infusing Fruits" issued Sep. 21, 1982 describes methods for incorporating sugar solids such as fructose to provide a soft and edible consistency even at freezing temperatures. U.S. Pat. No. 4,364,968 entitled "Process for Preparing a Dried Grape Product" describes a dehydration technique wherein grapes are immersed in an aqueous hydrophillic carbohydrate solution such as fructose, glycerol, corn syrup and the like having a concentration effective to provide significant osmotic withdrawal of water, removing the excess solution and drying to develop a natural raisin-like flavor. Although these dried fruit products as described provide satisfactory products, there is a significant disadvantage in the handling of these products because on storage these products tend to clump and on standing can further dehydrate losing softness properties as well as flavor properties.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,256,772 entitled "Fruit and Cereal Products and Process Therefor" issued Mar. 17, 1981, describes improved shelf stable breakfast foods containing dried fruits by equilibrating the moisture content of the cereal particles with the fruit by infusion with an aqueous solution of edible polyhydric alcohol and sugar. After the infused fruit is dried it is dusted with a moisture binder such as finely ground corn, tapioca or potato starch. This is a complicated procedure and on standing, clumping and further dehydration of the product occurs
The combination of dried fruit and cereal provides extensive problems in storage. Major among the problems encountered with dehydrated fruits for use as an admix with dry cereal is that of texture, flavor and avoiding the moisture of the fruit causing a soggy cereal. Generally in order to have a satisfactory degree of stability, it is the usual practice to dehydrate the fruits to a level whereat they are hard and have a tough fibrous structure and texture.
There remains a present need for the capability of treating dried fruits so that the dried fruit products retain more of their natural flavor and in dried condition remain soft, flavorful and a good color for extended periods of time. There also remains a need for a process which will enable the control of flavor and texture so that unique variations in the nature of the dried fruit product can be made as desired. Another problem is the handling of dried fruits which tend to clump when stored for extended periods of time. This problem creates excessive tie-ups in the use of the dried fruit in production operations requiring special handling to break up the clumps of fruit.